Foreign Ministry welcomes the decision to extend the mandate of OSCE Mission to Ukraine

The Foreign Ministry welcomed the OSCE Permanent Council's adopting a consensus decision to extend the mandate of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine until 31 March 2022.

The press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reports.

"Ukraine is grateful to the Swedish OSCE Chairmanship and the participating States for supporting the Ukrainian government's request to continue the mission's work for the next 12 months… Extending the mandate will ensure continuous monitoring of the OSCE SMM in Ukraine for objective and timely informing the international community about the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine…

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine stresses that the mandate of the OSCE SMM provides for secure access of observers to the entire territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders, including the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Foreign Ministry called the actions of the Russian Federation aimed at restricting the monitoring activities of the OSCE SMM in the temporarily occupied territories in eastern Ukraine and blocking the mission's access to the temporarily occupied Crimea inadmissible.

"The Russian party must immediately stop obstructing the mission's mandate. We expect the OSCE SMM to step up monitoring of other illegal actions by Russia: the ongoing militarization of Crimea, restrictions on freedom of navigation in the Azov-Black Sea region, violations of fundamental principles, and OSCE commitments, i.e. sovereignty, inviolability of borders and territorial integrity of the state," the statement said.